ICOMOS and Preserving Legacies Launch Heritage Adapts!

Heritage Adapts! launches today as the first global campaign uniting the heritage sector behind a shared mission: at least 3,000 sites and practices taking locally led climate adaptation action by 2030. Spearheaded by a coalition led by Preserving Legacies, an initiative supported by the National Geographic Society, and strategic partners ICOMOS, CIPRED, Climate Heritage Network, European Heritage Hub, Europa Nostra, The Heritage Management Organization, ICH NGO Forum, IFLA, Julie’s Bicycle, Shadhona and the World Monuments Fund; the campaign mobilises local stewards behind a collective pledge and provides the technical guidance, data access, and global connections to help them succeed. Recognised by the UN’s climate agency as a Plan to Accelerate Solutions advancing the Global Goal on Adaptation, Heritage Adapts! connects local action to global impact, strengthening community resilience worldwide.

A crisis threatening heritage, community resilience

Climate change is the fastest-growing threat to heritage globally. According to UNESCO, one in three natural heritage sites and one in six cultural heritage sites are under threat, as are 60% of World Heritage Forests and 66% of World Heritage Marine Sites. UNESCO’s newly published People and Nature in Unesco-Designated Sites report further found that across its sites, climate-related hazards have increased 40% in a decade, and more than one in four could hit potentially irreversible tipping points by 2050. But this data covers only a fraction of the world’s heritage; most sites, living practices, collections, and landscapes that communities value remain untracked by international frameworks.

This gap is itself part of the problem. Compounded by heritage adaptation remaining largely absent from climate finance and policy, stewards on the frontlines are often left with limited funding and support. Yet heritage is not just a victim, it is part of the solution, a source of community resilience and time-tested solutions relevant today.

A collective campaign built for action

Heritage Adapts! — with its founding coalition of over 100 organisations and stewards across the Global North and South — aims to fill that gap and accelerate climate adaptation for all types of heritage.

At its core is the collective pledge to take locally led adaptation action by 2030 and an online community of action platform to support those adapting. Built around a self-paced program through every stage of adaptation, it makes the process accessible no matter the starting point. A global peer network connects those on the frontlines, and downscaled climate data is available in downloadable regional packets, complemented by training so stewards can use it on their own terms and weave it with the knowledge their communities already hold. Developed directly with stewards, it is grounded in hands-on expertise and an inclusive, locally led, plural knowledge system approach to help ensure all voices are at the table and that solutions are targeted, sustainable, and locally appropriate. Heritage stewards, organisations, and institutions are invited to take the pledge, join the community, and start adapting at act.heritageadapts.org.

Preserving Legacies is a global initiative advancing locally led adaptation to safeguard heritage places and practices from the impacts of climate change, strengthening community resilience. Supported by the National Geographic Society, it equips custodians with the training, tools, andnnetworks to implement targeted, sustainable, and locally appropriate solutions. Its proven three-stage cohort model supports nearly 100 custodians representing a wide range of heritage, from UNESCO World Heritage Sites like Petra to Indigenous seed-saving practices in New Mexico. With the launch of the Heritage Adapts! “community of action” platform, Preserving Legacies is scaling its impact to support thousands of stewards worldwide, protecting our past to save our future.

The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) is a non-governmental, not for profit international organisation, committed to furthering the conservation, protection, use and enhancement of the world’s cultural heritage. With over 12,000 members, 110+ National Committees, 31 International Scientific Committees and several Working Groups, ICOMOS has built a solid philosophical, doctrinal and managerial framework for the sustainable conservation of heritage around the world. As an official Advisory Body to the World Heritage Committee for the implementation of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, ICOMOS evaluates nominations and advises on the state of conservation of properties inscribed on the World Heritage List.